Bruce A. Rubenstein

is a professor of history at University of Michigan-Flint.

Lawrence E. Ziewacz

Lawrence (Larry) Ziewacz was a Professor at Michigan State University and taught in the Writing, Rhetoric, and American Cultures and the American Thought and Language departments until his death in December, 2003.

He received his PhD in History from Michigan State University, and taught at Edinboro University, Lansing Community College, and Michigan State University.

Articles he has authored or co-authored have been published in journals such as Michigan History, the Michigan Historical Review, the Sport Sociology Bulletin, Country Music Annual, the Journal of the Great Lakes History Conference, Midwestern Miscellany, and History Reviews of New Books. He co-authored, with Douglas A. Noverr, The Games They Played: Sports in American History: 1865- 1980.

Payoffs in the Cloakroom
The Greening of the Michigan Legislature, 1938-1946

Bruce A. Rubenstein

Lawrence E. Ziewacz

Payoffs in the Cloakroom is a spellbinding follow-up to Rubenstein and Ziewacz's critically acclaimed Three Bullets Sealed His Lips. Three Bullets brought to life new evidence on the 1945 murder of Michigan Senator Warren Hooper. Payoffs in the Cloakroom takes up where Three Bullets left off, unraveling a complex web of political corruption, dirty state politics; and in the end, they finger the "hitman." In the process, they demonstrate that Senator Hooper was murdered to prevent his grand jury testimony against republican boss Frank McKay, who was facing bribery charges. 
 
Making use of actual court proceeding, personal interviews, and newspaper accounts, and even a re-evaluation of police evidence, Rubenstein and Ziewacz tell a story that contains all the ingredients of first- class detective fiction—only in this instance, the story is based on fact. With chapter titles such as "Charlie and His Little Black Book," "I Never Dreamed Murder," and "Them Bones, Them Bones," the authors have, once again, provided a stimulating and absorbing account of one of the darker chapters of Michigan's political history. 
 
 

Michigan & Great Lakes Books